A US election watch party in Kenya, excitement at first, followed by disappointment

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nairo­bi, kenya — In a vibrant Nairo­bi com­mu­ni­ty cen­ter, Amer­i­can cit­i­zens liv­ing in Kenya gath­ered with pal­pa­ble excite­ment ear­ly Wednes­day to watch the U.S. elec­tion results unfold. The atmos­phere buzzed with antic­i­pa­tion as expa­tri­ates shared snacks and sto­ries, their eyes glued to screens dis­play­ing real-time updates.

As the results of the U.S elec­tions trick­led in, a mix of Amer­i­can cit­i­zens and local Kenyan friends anx­ious­ly mon­i­tored the results.

Robyn Emer­son, an Amer­i­can expa­tri­ate in Nairo­bi and chair­per­son of Democ­rats Abroad Kenya, which orga­nized the event, said all Amer­i­can cit­i­zens were invit­ed to the event, regard­less of the par­ty they support.

“Amer­i­can vot­ers have come to a cen­tral place so that we can be togeth­er and watch the elec­tion come in so that we can real­ly cel­e­brate the right to vote,” Emer­son said. “That we have done our part; we par­tic­i­pat­ed in a demo­c­ra­t­ic process. And watch­ing how the dif­fer­ent states are com­ing in, and the results that are there.”

Bent­ley Wil­son, an inde­pen­dent vot­er from the west­ern state of Utah, agreed.

“It’s impor­tant for us to see each oth­er as one coun­try. And no mat­ter whether we go for a cer­tain par­ty, it’s impor­tant for us to come togeth­er because it’s our country’s sig­nif­i­cance that’s at stake,” Wil­son said. “So, we bet­ter come togeth­er. I like com­ing togeth­er no mat­ter whether I’m lean­ing one side or anoth­er, to come togeth­er with cit­i­zens of my coun­try to sup­port the cause of … choos­ing an elect­ed official.”

The Democ­rats Abroad Kenyan chap­ter esti­mates that approx­i­mate­ly 30,000 Amer­i­can expa­tri­ates reside in the country.

Tom Wolf, an Amer­i­can researcher based in Nairo­bi, said most expa­tri­ates are keen to engage in the elec­tion process back home.

“They are well edu­cat­ed peo­ple … or they wouldn’t be allowed to stay in Kenya, they wouldn’t have jobs here,” Wolf said. “Whether they are diplo­mats or busi­ness­peo­ple, or with NGOs. So, they tend to be of high­er edu­ca­tion lev­els than the aver­ages in their home coun­tries. And we all know from stud­ies of vot­ing that peo­ple with high­er edu­ca­tion lev­els are more like­ly to vote.”

Lisa Maroni, a native of Detroit, said the event pro­vid­ed her with a spe­cial oppor­tu­ni­ty to inter­act with fel­low citizens.

“I’m so grate­ful for the com­mu­ni­ty in Kenya. I think it’s real­ly spe­cial. I’ve lived in oth­er coun­tries and nev­er had such an oppor­tu­ni­ty to spend time with oth­er Amer­i­cans and friends,” she said. “There are some allies from oth­er coun­tries here who are inter­est­ed in what’s hap­pen­ing in the coun­try, and I’m just very grate­ful to have some­where to share that experience.”

Giv­en that the event was orga­nized by Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty sup­port­ers, the ear­ly morn­ing excite­ment began to dis­si­pate as it became clear that their can­di­date, Kamala Har­ris, was los­ing to the Repub­li­can, for­mer pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump.

Wil­son, a Har­ris sup­port­er, was among the dis­ap­point­ed people.

“I was real­ly hope­ful that we would vote the first U.S. woman and woman of col­or pres­i­dent this year,” Wil­son said.

Dis­ap­point­ed in the results, most of the par­tic­i­pants start­ed leav­ing the event and it end­ed ear­li­er than scheduled.